Professional

I am going on what is basically my first, real business trip in all these thirty-something years. Just for one night, to New York. Will stay over in a hotel (in a king bed! by myself!) a few blocks from our New York office (can walk to work in 10 minutes! I can sleep until 8:30 if I want — that’s like noon, practically, in the life of a parent…).

So, I roll up to Logan this morning, very professional in my trench coat, laptop bag-that-looks-like-a-stylish-bag, and rolling suitcase (with my liquids packed neatly in an accessible ziploc bag). But then, as the true business-traveler novice I really am, I forget to take my laptop out of my bag before sending it through the scanner, have my face cleanser confiscated for being an ounce too large, and set off the metal detector with my belt, all the while much more professional people in suits pile up behind me, coughing and stamping their feet (or so it seemed to me!).

And then, oh yeah, my flight is cancelled. So I shelled out $7.95 for a Logan internet “day pass” and here I am, drinking coffee that is not Starbucks and waiting for my colleagues who were smart enough to check their Blackberries this morning to see that our flight was, in fact, cancelled.

In any event, it will be a fun little trip — will get to see Law School Lindsey, who works in my firm’s New York office and who is now, after the Connecticut swearing-in ceremony yesterday, officially a lawyer (hooray! Congrats!), as well as my New York colleagues. And the highlight is a big Halloween party tonight, which will take place in a rather expensive and chichi restaurant, so I’d better not mention exactly where on this blog.  (The whole “It was already paid for” argument didn’t make AIG’s executive retreat look any better…)